A furious pursuit of peace

Bangkok’s 13th International Festival of Dance and Music featured U-Theatre’s Thailand debut last week, a performance of “Meeting with Bodhisattva” sponsored by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand in celebration of the Republic of China’s centenary.
The drummers-dancers-chanters displayed effortless skill, always in sync, and their energy raised the roof.
Accentuated by captivating set design and lighting, the 80-minute “Meeting with Bodhisattva” played with the dynamic between sound and silence, simple beats and complicated rhythms.
The central story of a warrior attaining the ultimate truth was reverberating and hypnotic – the best performance by far at this year’s festival.
In the end, with the stage stripped bare, the warrior put down his cudgel and the audience learned an important lesson: To gain peace and happiness in life, sometimes you need to just let go.
It’s worth noting that this was the festival’s only sold-out show. The auditorium was filled with Taiwanese expats, who had every reason to be proud of their homeland’s world-renowned performing-arts company.
The same thing happened two years ago with the Cloud Gate Dance Company’s much-awaited Thailand debut, “Moon Water”. With this kind of popular and critical success, the festival and Taipei cultural office should definitely continue to collaborate.
This would, however, have been a more complete experience had U-Theatre also hosted a forum and master class like Cloud Gate did.
After the Mariinsky and the U-Theatre, it was going to be difficult to keep the festival buzz up to the same level, and Wednesday’s Introdans contemporary-dance quadruple bill could not.
The dancers had the all the skills necessary to master the first piece by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, “In Memoriam”, but their energy and magnetism weren’t enough to fill the large hall – or maintain audience attention.
I found myself glancing up at the screen to watch video footage of cars speeding through a tunnel, even though it was repeated again and again.
In Jiri Kylian’s “Evening Songs”, the dancers showed musicality in their movements, yet were somewhat overshadowed by the choral music. In the last piece of the first part, also by Kylian, set to Mozart’s “Sechs Tänze”, they fit smoothly into the costumes and makeup but weren’t able to pull off the comedy.
The momentum picked up and the energy rose with Kylian’s “Indigo Rose” – the clear highlight of the evening. His striking, playful set design didn’t steal the show from the Introdans dancers. In fact, Kylian’s choreography required them to make full use of the set, and they did joyously.
Even when they attempted Kylian’s off-balance moves, they did so effortlessly. However, just when the temperature was rising, our brief evening with Introdans was already over.
I won’t beg the Dutch Embassy and the festival to bring us the Nederlands Dans Theatre every other year since it’s too busy and expensive. But I do have to wonder why Introdans has been at the festival four times in eight years, more frequently than it’s appeared in any other city or festival in Asia.

 Classics time
_ Next up for Bangkok’s 13th International Festival of Dance and Music, the Ekatarinburg State Opera Theatre presents “The Tsar’s Bride” on Thursday and “The Marriage of Figaro” on Saturday.
_ On Friday, the Ekatarinburg orchestra will perform Borodin’s Symphony No 2 and Beethoven’s Symphony No 9.
_ All performances are at 7.30pm at the Thailand Cultural Centre. Seats cost Bt700 to Bt4,000 at ThaiTicketMajor.
_ Visit www.BangkokFestivals.com and www.UralOpera.ru.